[Advaita-l] A news item The most unfortunate thing

[Satish Arigela]

>From: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>

>*sigh* way to miss the point completely.  But when I saw Vidyashankaras 
original mail on this topic I had a sinking feeling this is exactly what was going to >happen.

We will see about that.

>You and Rajaram apparently missed that I wasn't talking about Hitler at all but about _us_

I was not implying you were talking about Hitler.

1) Propaganda, 2) Misunderstanding, 3) Possible Alternate interpretation: These three are different things. Those who are well informed will immediately recognize to which category the news item belongs to. I was only saying when one sees rubbish like the news article, educated Hindu-s should be able to precisely distinguish one from the other.


>It is only a thorough understanding of what our guru parampara has said which can defend against the distorters. 


Which century are you in? Wake up. You are very right that a thorough understanding of our parampara-s(use plural - there is just not one parampara)  is important.

But that is far from sufficient to be able to defend the tradition. A thorough understanding of tradition is sufficient if you are having a honest debate with a Christian or Muslim. 


But the reality on the ground is different...The Christians and to a lesser extent the Muslims have realized as early as the 18th century that indulging in an open debate with the Hindu-s is going to be their complete undoing. So the enemy(specifically the preta-mata with its focus on kIlita-preta) has turned to more subtle and deceptive ways. If you are not well informed to be able to see through them, you cannot defend the tradition-s.


>As for Rajiv Malhotra (who I have met) he is a clown.  Just because he 
is a pro-Hindu clown doesn't make him anymore worthy of attention.  He 
and his ilk are just >as ready to distort Hinduism as "the church" (there is only one?) Is it any less apalling because his distortions are 
flattering instead of uncomplimentary?

Know that I(as well as many traditional people) personally do not agree with Rajiv Malhotra on few points. His understanding on some traditional issues is incomplete. Also know that,many people appreciate RM more for his political acumen and his strategy. Neither me nor the traditional people that I know, have RM as a source for their understanding vedAnta, tantra , dharma shAstra or anything else.

IMHO anyone who thinks RM is a clown is utterly ignorant about the current political scenario. Just because his understanding of Hinduism is flawed does not mean you discard whatever he says. RM is such a valuable person not because of his understanding of shAstra-s, but because of his thorough understanding of the enemies of Hinduism and their methods of the enemy, and the reach of the enemy[along with very precise & specifics details]


Spend time reading RM. RM's strategy is much more subtle. At some points, he does understand the traditional points well, but he intentionally toes a different line keeping in mind the current political scenario.

Be open to the possibility that RM like any other human, revises his understanding of issues(whether on technical details of Hinduism or political issues) over a period of time.


>> Obtain copies of these books and study them thoroughly. The study of
>> gItA bhAShya, or brahma sUtra can wait for the moment.

>If
 one lets Hitler, the church, or Rajiv Malhotra dictate ones sadhana 
they have already ceased to be Astikas and are now merely reactionaries.

Look more closely. I said the gItA bhAShya can wait... I did not say discard the gItA and follow RM.

As far as I know, RM does not teach Hinduism nor does he claim to be an expert in some darshana or some other path within Hinduism. He is only interested in the political part of the survival of Hindu traditions.


>Historically as well the romantic nationalism which in its most extreme 
form gave birth to Nazism was eagerly adopted by Indians trying to 
defend Hinduism by >showing it is "modern" and "scientific"  This is a 
fact that cannot be ignored.  What I am saying is we should also resist 
hitching Hinduism to the trendy intellectual >fads of today.

Never a problem for those who were trained traditionally.

>Vidyasankar:

>"an unsavory association has been foisted upon the gItA".

I did take note of this later and realized that you probably understood this to be propaganda. But the use Hitler's tradition caught my attention. Probably you weren't really serious when you use the word Hitler's tradition?

>Thanks for the compliment, although I don't know if I have any one solution,
>except to state that each one of us needs to have our own solutions

This is where one could use the insights of Rajiv Malhotra. One may or may not agree with everything he says.. but he has done lots of work in this direction and people will benefit from that instead of coming up with solutions from scratch,